the ratties still don't know what to think of the ferrets. i think on the one hand they're relieved because i'm not trying to take them out & play with them or trying to get them to use their huge exercise ball. anthony really loves running in his wheel, but i put him in the rat ball & he just won't move. it's like he doesn't make the connection. i know he's a smart little guy, just doesn't seem to want to run in the rat ball. which is kinda sad. johnny (my rat from four years ago) simply loved his rat ball. he'd run & run in that thing as long as i'd let him. leif & anthony are very fond of their cage, sometimes it's a struggle to get them to come out so i can clean it once a week. but i'm fastidious about making sure they have a clean cage, so they do get out.
while the rats appreciate the ferrets distracting me from trying to get them to come out & play, they do get kinda freaked when one of the ferrets gets too close to the cage. to be honest i'd be freaked too if someone that much bigger than me was standing next to my house & staring at me. & for some reason sundance has decided to test his limits & has walked across the top of the rat cage. *shakes my head* i did get the rats moved into a new cage last weekend. i had a big rat cage with 1/2 inch bar spacing at josh's house & finally got that back from him. so i feel a lot better because before the boys were able to get their entire head out of the top of the other cage, which was technically a chinchilla/ferret cage. lucky for me they didn't figure out that they could escape completely from that cage. now that would've been ugly. i'm sure i would've found them, but if they would've escaped my apartment & gotten outside, or into jane's house, well, i have no clue what could've happened then.
my ratties are a BIT pissed at me about the new cage because they can't climb the walls like they could in the other one because the third level of this cage goes all the way across the top except for the ramp area; they can only climb about 2/3 of the way up the wall before they have to stop. but the cage is a lot more secure & i'm able to get more hammocks & other hanging beds in there for them. it's also WAY easier to clean than the other one which i really love. if you look really close at the picture below you can see leif is in the hammock in the middle of the cage & you can kinda see anthony's white little butt sticking out of the wicker-ish hidey ball on the bottom level.
in ferret news: i made a trip to the golden valley humane society today. there was a little girl ferret who'd been there for about two months & she was meant to be mine. yes. i do now have FIVE pets. i'd like to note though, that the five of them, weight wise, only really add up to a small dog & they're all in cages. but i've been doing a lot of research & everything i've read has said with ferrets it's best to have them in groups of three or more. they are very social animals & if you have only two & one has to be put down the other one will get very depressed & most likely die of depression. if there are three (or more) they will still get depressed if one gets sick & passes, but they will still have another friend to keep them company. my boys are super young, only about eight or nine months old, but still, it's something that's been nagging at me.
my little girl's name is nikka, or, it is for the time being. i'm going to see if she actually answers to it, if she does then i'll keep it, otherwise i'm changing it, or at least the spelling, cause i just don't like it; it's the name she came with from the shelter. she was dropped off because her owner decided they didn't want to care for her anymore. which makes me sad because she's an utter sweetheart. the humane society didn't have tons of info on her, but they had some. she was in a home with other ferrets & cats & dogs, so she's used to other animals. she didn't live with children, which, i don't have any so that's not an issue. she's been fixed & is very friendly. unfortunately they don't know how old she is. when i take her into my vet i'm going to ask if there's anyway that they can guesstimate that.
the boys are getting used to their new sister. it's like three's company but instead of two girls & a boy it's two boys & a girl.....my kind of threesome! *winks* ok, well, my FAVORITE threesome would be me & a pint of ben & jerry's, but since i'm off the ice cream, well...(just joking by the way, unrelated note but E is more than enough for me, but, to quote Z "beckah can always be counted on for inappropriate sexual comments") all the kids have been running around & playing. when i put them back in the cage for the night nikka & sundance were even curled up in the lower hammock.
E has been telling me that i have it SO easy with my boys & they need lessons in being a true ferret. well, i think they're getting that now. nikka is such a little rascal! i've only had her about seven hours now & i've already had to pull off the baseboard under my kitchen cupboard to get her out, lift up my couch to retrieve her from a nap, & hunt down my cross pen after she looked me in the eye, picked it up in her mouth, & ran off with the damn thing. she also has SO much energy, she's even making sundance look like a lazy bum, which is making cassidy seem almost comatose.
she is super tiny in comparison to my boys. nikka is a mere 1.7 lbs; sundance is 2.9 & cassidy is 3.5, so she weighs half as much as cassidy but she's like ten times as much of a trouble maker! but she really stole my heart when i went to visit her in the shelter. i pulled her out of the cage & was petting her & she gave me kisses. lots & lots of kisses. & i knew instantly she'd be my third ferret & complete my little zoo. she is really tiny, i kinda think a bit too small. she's a bit bony & her coat is rough. then again, if i'd been living in a shelter i'd look kinda rough also. but i know with lots of TLC she'll start feeling better & looking better. i also have a high cal ferret vitamin supplement i can give her. & so far she likes treats. it's also going to help her to be in a real home where she gets to run & play several hours a day. & she has playmates instead of living all alone in a cage in a shelter.
i wasn't quick enough with my camera to get a picture of her & sundance meeting for the first time. but i did get a picture of her meeting cassidy for the first time. & lots of other pictures of her.
i turned on the shower to rinse it out & she went & played in it with the boys, so now i'll have three ferrets invading my morning shower, but i'm ok with that, at least she fits in with the gang!
the cutest one is this one with her & sun curled up together in the hammock. cassidy is off to the right in the new little cuddle cup i got last night. he decided it was bath time so he didn't want to pile into the hammock with the other two.
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